Exercise May Not Be the Solution to Your Sitting Problem

1st June 2012

The first question that you may be asking is why should you bother buying a standing desk in the first place? The reason for this is that we spend half of our waking hour sitting down, split between watching TV driving, working at an office desk or at an office chair and this is not good for us. There are two reasons apart from the obvious back neck and shoulder strains. The first is that we burn fewer calories when we are sitting down, which is quite obvious, however the second is more serious and subtle. When we are seated for long periods of time over a long time, our metabolisms slow down and begin to change.

A journal in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise found that after testing 17,000 men and women, those who are seated for most of the day are 54% more likely to suffer from a heart attack. We can see this as a problem, but what is the solution? Exercise is good for us of course, but the average person could never do enough in order to stop the effects from too much sitting.

Olivia Judson an evolutionary biologist and researcher at the Imperial College London claim this to be the case:

“It doesn’t matter if you go running every morning, or you’re a regular at the gym. If you spend most of the rest of the day sitting — in your car, your office chair, on your sofa at home — you are putting yourself at increased risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, a variety of cancers and an early death. In other words, irrespective of whether you exercise vigorously, sitting for long periods is bad for you.”

The solution is to make sure that you don’t sit for long periods of time. Get up and go for a walk for a couple of minutes and try to take breaks every half an hour or so.